A case of Staphylococcus aureus endocarditis after ear piercing in a patient with normal cardiac valve and a questionnaire survey on adverse events of body piercing in college students of Korea

Body piercing in young adults is on the rise in western countries and also in Korea. It is usually practised by non-medical persons, and therefore frequently entails local adverse events. Serious complications, such as septic arthritis or infective endocarditis, are occasionally reported, but infective endocarditis in patients with normal cardiac valve is rare. We experienced a case of acute S. aureus endocarditis after ear piercing. Thereafter we studied the status and complications of body piercing in college students of Korea based on a questionnaire survey, and revealed that the rate of ear piercing is high ( 96.5%) and 61.3% of the pierced persons experience local complications.